Harbin Part I

View from my bedroom, sorry... 'suite' on the 29th floor...

SunIsland - where the Ice Festival usually takes place every winter

Despite it being the middle of summer (and it being damned hot) they do have a Ice Sculpture museum; a big freezer room where they have ice sculptures all year round: costs 80yuan to get in and 15yuan to rent the compulsary legwarmers, shoes and jackets that you need to not freeze once inside.

We also went to 'Polar World' which was, as I usually find aquariums and zoos, depressing. Animals in tiny confines being stared at by humans through panes of glass. On the otherhand much further north of the city there is a tiger reserve where you can drive through their cages and take photos of of tigers and ligers (lion-tiger hybrid). Every so often you would see a splattering of chicken feathers where a tasty chicken had been had.

Miaow?

Best of all, after the little bus excursion, they dropped you off on a caged pedestrian walkway where the majority of visitors took too banging on the cage and shouting at the (disinterested) tigers trying to get an interesting response. On the walkway there was an enterprising lady selling live chickens and bits of raw beef. The first of which could be thrown over the fence to feed the tigers, the second could be dangled on the end of some provided string presumably to do a bit of 'tigering'. I personally think 50yuan is a good price for a whole live chicken, but would be more tempted to take it home as a pet than watch it become a snack on moving legs...

For some added cuteness there were fluffy baby tigers to have photos taken with.